BOOK REVIEW
The Flowering of a Naturalist
Kim Todd
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Long before Darwin set sail on the Beagle, Maria Sibylla
Merian (1647-1717) traveled to Surinam to study the life cycles of
moths and butterflies. The first European naturalist to make an
overseas voyage with the sole purpose of scientific observation and
the first to investigate the rain-forest canopy, she insisted on
documenting insects and other creatures within their ecological
contexts. Since her death, her work has largely been dismissed and
ignored, but it influenced such thinkers as Erasmus Darwin and
Carolus Linnaeus.
Kim Todd's engaging biography, Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian
and the Secrets of Metamorphosis (Harcourt, $27),
recognizes Merian's contributions and puts her career in
perspective. Relying on Merian's study book and letters, historical
documents, and skillful speculation that only occasionally tests our
sense of the plausible, Todd recreates her life and explores her
significant impact on both entomology and ecology.
Especially fascinating is Todd's account of Merian's early work: She
began by painting unflawed flowers, but soon the insects that
populated those blooms crept into the paintings, eating holes in
petals, hanging their pupae from stems. As Todd notes, it is
impossible not to see a sly sense of humor in the (almost) perfect
pink rose shown here—and a conscious shift from traditional
depiction to a more accurate view. Yet Merian's engravings and
prints do not sacrifice art for science; rather, they use art to
illuminate the species portrayed. As Merian wrote of flowers and
insects, "They make one alive through the
other."—Anna Lena Phillips
About once a month at Sigma Xi headquarters, we liven up the lunch hour with an American Scientist Pizza Lunch talk. In these informal lectures, scientists describe new research to nonscientists. The series is light on jargon but heavy on solid science. Each Pizza Lunch offers an in-depth look at its subject, whether it's bedbugs or the smart grid. Click below to read about and download these talks -- and to subscribe!
